"THE TERROR OF THE DANUBE.”

Otago Witness, Issue 3212, 6 October 1915, Page 37

"THE TERROR OF THE DANUBE.”

■ iqggfr. .. —■» RIVER WARFARE IX SERBIA, DARING BRITISH OFFICER. (From Oub Own Coeeespondent.) LONDON, July 9. The following account of “The Terror of the Danube ” comes from the Belgrade correspondent of The Times, and the hero of the exploit is stated to be a British naval officer. He writes: —“The present situation in Belgrade is almost more than Gilbertian. Alter lunch, when you are idle, you go out into the street and look at the enemy and yawn, and wonder when he is going- to begin. You can ascend to the roof of a favourably-situated house, or walk to the higher ground outside the town, and look through glasses up the Danube, to where, beyond the Austrian town of Somlin, and the island of Grosser Kricg. the Austrian River monitors are lying, black and ugly, in tho stream. At one time there were seven monitors, but there are onlysix now ; and you can generally see three, one of which always has steam up, with a picket boat on guard over them. What you cannot see is that they arc- lying inside a bourn; for since their number was reduced from seven to six by a pretty piece of torpedo work on the part of the solitary little picket boat, commonly known as ‘ The Terror of the Danube,’ the enemy’s monitors have been singularly unenterprising. “ There are understood to be weighty reasons why nothing- must be known in England of the composition of the mixed artillery force which, under General Jivkovitch, military commander of the district, has charge of the defence of Belgrade. Its composition is thoroughly well known to the Austrians. The essential facts have been published in French, American, Swiss, and other newspapers. But it appears that the most calamitous consequences might be expected to follow any publication of the same facts in England. One can say nothing, then, except that the force is charmingly cosmopolitan, and that the young gentlemen (I cannot, happily, at the moment remember their nationality, for I have not seen them since lunch) who have charge of the Terror of the Danube have great, larks with it. They poke their way on dark nights into creeks and passages whore they are not in the least expected, and annoy the Austrians dreadfully. “ The Austrians have three picket gunboats, which look like toy Dreadnoughts, with machine guns mounted in their turrets. Any of them could eat up the ‘Terror’ in a few minutes if it could get at it. But the ‘Terror’ comes up when it is nice and dark and makes rude remarks with its single machine gun to one of tho Dreadnoughts, and then runs like a hare. Ten days ago one of the Dreadnoughts chased it into a prepared minefield, and the Dreadnought's remnants drifted ashore on Kojara Island, in mid-stream, where the hull and turrets: are plainly visible from Belgrade. The crow escaped, and they threw the machine gnus overboard. But even so, the ‘Terror’ next day got a lovely haul of plunder out of her, from machine gun ammunition and automatic pistols to a gramophone, with an cxcell ent stock of records, as well as the Dreadnought’s ensign and pennon, three admirals* and one general’s flags. “ The young gentleman in command of the ‘Terror’ (whose nationality still escapes mo) has within the last two days been decorated by his Government with a—well, what corresponds to a D.S.O. And most thoroughly ho has earned it, Night after night he and those with him go gaily on errands of the utmost danger, and they keep fairly terrorised an enemy force of monitors and gunboats and what-nots of literally more than a hundred times their strength* It almost makes quo 'we dp that

one cannot say who these young men are,

The Times understands that the officer referred to is Lieutenant-commander Kerr, ji.X.. who has recently been awarded the D.S.O. for the ‘’'pretty piece of torpedo work” mentioned. The crew of the boat (The Terror of the Danube) all received the Distinguished Conduct Medal.